Then and Now: Matt Waller builds what lasts through leadership

For Matt Waller, 61, leadership is about uplifting others, a lesson he attributes to a quote he read as a high school senior by motivational speaker Zig Ziglar: “You can have everything in life you want if you will just help other people get what they want.”

That’s been Waller’s mantra throughout his career as a businessman, professor, and dean of the University of Arkansas’ Sam M. Walton College of Business.

“My legacy is in other people,” Waller said. “How can I help other people do better, live better and succeed. If you’re constantly helping other people, you’ll be helped in the process. That focus on other people is a constant battle for man because we’re naturally wanting to be self-focused. But the more we can focus on others and helping them, I think the happier we are.

“When I go to work in the morning, I always think, how can I be helpful to other people here today? That’s what I focus on. It’s fun to be at the stage of my career where I can really think that way because I probably don’t have a long runway left. So, I might as well help as many people as I can.”

A member of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class of 2000, Waller’s professional purpose statement is “build what lasts: people, systems and trust, so that others can do their best work.”

A Kansas City native, Waller received his master’s degree and doctorate in business from Pennsylvania State University and came to the UA as a visiting professor in 1994, gaining tenure in three years.

He co-founded Bentonville Associates Ventures in 1996 and Mercari Technologies in 1998. Because of Mercari’s rapid growth, he left the university but returned full-time upon selling the business in 2002, becoming full professor in 2007. He’s held many positions in the Walton College, including director of its Executive MBA-China program.

In 2011 Waller established the Department of Supply Chain Management, ranked No. 1 in North America by Gartner, a leading global research firm. He also held the Garrison Endowed Chair in Supply Chain Management for nine years, and in 2015 was named dean of Walton College.

Under Waller’s leadership, undergraduate enrollment jumped 42% in seven years, with 7,719 undergraduates enrolled in 2022.

During his tenure Waller established seven new master programs; the Robert Shoptaw Healthcare Business Analytics program; and created the Department of Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Venture Innovation. Among his accomplishments, Waller helped secure a $10 million endowment creating the William Dillard Department of Accounting; a $2 million gift from Doug and Shelley McMillon to scale the McMillon Innovation Studio; a $7 million gift to create the Supply Chain Policy Initiative; and gifts totaling $5 million to name the J.B. Hunt Department of Supply Chain Management.

He led the creation of the Dean’s Roundtable of Entrepreneurs and Market Makers (DREAM Board) and the Business Integrity Leadership Initiative, in addition to helping establish the Blockchain Center of Excellence within the Department of Information Systems.

Waller’s greatest accomplishments “are the doctoral students that I’ve mentored and the master’s and undergraduate students that I’ve advised over the years,” he said. One of his doctoral students, Brent Williams, is now dean of Walton College.

In 2023 Waller resigned as dean to go back to the UA classroom as supply chain management professor, teaching “Leadership and Organizational Behavior: Using Walmart as a Case Study.”

Another Ziglar mantra, “expect the best, prepare for the worst, and capitalize on what comes,” resonated when Waller was diagnosed with rectal cancer in 2017. “I’m thankful I went through it. It taught me to appreciate everybody and to cherish the moment,” he said.

His advice for others is to “learn how to listen, get a mentor and recognize that everyone you meet is valuable, very valuable. It doesn’t matter what they look like or where they come from; they are valuable.”

To encourage the entrepreneurial ecosystem, Waller worked with Highstep and is a strategic adviser to NewRoad Capital Partners. He serves on the boards of Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield and the Walton Arts Center and Walmart AMP.